You laugh at my recent obsession with Swedish pop music, but you are the one missing out. I walk down the street with an extra hop in my step listening to the charming tunes by my new favorite bands. The term "Swedish pop" probably evokes images of Ace of Base or ABBA however today's Swedish pop is much better. ("Better than ABBA? HOW?" you ask.)

It all started with Jens Lekman. Todd has his album and he uploaded it onto my iPod. Some of the songs came up on my shuffle mode and I wondered "Who is this infectious Jens Lekman?" When Jens came to town on tour I was enamoured with my dear Swedish Jens and his back-up band of 7 adorable Swedish women.

When I signed up for last.fm I became connected to a whole new world. I am amazed at the generosity of my 18 year old Swedish friend who, upon hearing my plight about the difficulty of finding Swedish pop music in the US helped me to **find way to legally obtain all of the music I was interested in.** Today I am tapping my toes to Suburban Kids with Biblical names (ALL THREE ALBUMS!), The Embassy, Lo-Fi-FNK, I'm From Barcelona (BOTH ALBUMS!), The Cardigans newest albums, and Hello Saferide (only the three free songs from their website, phooey! They are delicious. http://www.hellosaferide.com/?page_id=3) Oh, and Håkan Hellström but all 4 of his albums are in Swedish so it's a little bit odd. It's a musical shmorgasborg on my iPod today.

It's absolutely glorious having all this exciting new music; possibly the most exciting thing that has happened all summer.